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Ukraine’s Security Service opens criminal inquiry against ex-President Yanukovich

He was charged with conspiracy to change the constitutional system and the usurpation of power

KIEV, April 9. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Security Service /SBU/ has opened a criminal inquiry against former President Viktor Yanukovich, some judges of the Constitutional Court and some high-ranking officials on charges of conspiracy aiming at changing the constitutional order and at usurping power, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Justice Ministry’s working group on amending the lustration law said.

"Ukraine’s Security Service has registered a criminal case charging the former president, Yanukovich, judges of the Constitutional Court and a number of high-ranking officials with a conspiracy to change the constitutional system and to usurp power in the country," Karl Volokh wrote on his Facebook account adding: "In the near future suspicions will be announced to many ‘untouchables’."

Ukrainian leading lawyers have provided assistance for substantiating the case which has no analogues in the Ukrainian jurisdiction.

"Today the first bottom lines have been drawn," Volokh said. "In the morning SBU Chairman Nalivaichenko held a meeting and then we together with head of the SBU investigation department Vovk went to the prosecutor general. And there we received a full support and green light."

In March 2014 Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office instituted criminal cases against Yanukovich accusing him of a power grab in 2010 and of activities aimed at a violent seizure of power or overthrow of the constitutional system.